Breeding only Poll Hereford cattle since the 1960s, it’s fair to say that Kevin Hillsdon was certainly ahead of his time and a pioneer of the Poll Hereford breed in Australia. And after 49 years, Kevin and Christine Hillsdon are moving on.
One of breed’s great supporters, Kevin was one of the seven founding members of the Central Tablelands Poll Hereford Association in the mid to late 1970’s.
The so called ‘baby of the group’ at the time, Kevin set out to make the most of the opportunity and the Central Tablelands Annual Sales were great events, selling 160 bulls in Bathurst at their peak.
In fact, the Bathurst Annual Sales were one of the first bull sale events in Australia to attract corporate sponsorship.
“And not just any sponsor, we had Qantas and Honda as sponsors,” says Kevin.
After many years of separate operation, the Central Tablelands Hereford and Poll Hereford Associations joined forces in the year 2000 and Kevin served on the board of the combined association for six years until his retirement in 2017.
These were exciting times for the breed and the association with enormous growth in genetics and genomics.
Wattlegrove is a large scale, well improved, high country grazing property in the tightly held Black Springs area just 34 kilometres from Oberon, 51kms from Bathurst and 213 kms from Sydney. Wattlegrove features approximately 1574.9 hectares (1420 acres) of basalt and heavy grey soils, excellent water, lush improved pastures and first-class improvements.
It enjoys excellent access and double road frontage, with sealed road to Oberon, Bathurst and Sydney. Water is reliable and a stand-out feature with permanent water from Sewells Creek, spring fed dams, 2800 GPH bore, stock troughs and tanks.
“It’s an understatement to say that we’ll miss Wattlegrove,” says Kevin. “It’s been absolutely fantastic in every way”.
Selling agent Sam D’Arcy of Ray White Rural Emms Mooney said: “Wattlegrove is an outstanding tablelands property offered for only the second time in 110 years”.
Ray White Emms Mooney director Pat Bird added that with commodity prices including wool, lamb and beef all looking very positive into the future along with the potential for capital growth along with the fact that equity markets look remarkably uncertain, now is the time to invest in rural property in a safe, reliable area.
Wattlegrove is to be offered for sale by public auction on November 30.
- SUBMITTED BY AGENT
